I do not know; only Barack Obama and Allah know—just kidding.
I actually thought to ignore this question. Yet, it brought to the surface a lot of examples of basic misunderstandings of Christian theology and illogically in the media, pop-culture and politics. Also, I have written about it before in the post Osama vs. Obama.
There is a popular saying amongst Christians, “If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”
The Pew Research Center concludes that 18% of Americans believed that Obama is a Muslim, 34%
Christian, and 43% do not know either way what President Obama believes/practices.
Some say that since, or if, Obama claims to be a Christian then he is. Fine, I am a ten foot tall Japanese woman with wings. Consider that Jesus stated, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21-23) and so “you will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). It is about relationship and actions; not merely about intellectual assent or claims.
How does this apply to Barack Obama? That is not my point. My point is that it applies to claims to being a Christian. Keep in mind that very many people conclude that Adolf Hitler was a Christian and why? Because he said so—note that the premise is that apparently, Hitler was such an honest, upright and trustworthy fellow that whatever he said must have been true—oi vey!
From here I want to consider a good breakdown of statements made by Bill Burton—White House spokesman—about Barack Obama’s Christianity:
He prays every day. He communicates with his religious advisor every single day. There’s a group of pastors that he takes counsel from on a regular basis.
His faith is very important to him but it’s not something that’s a topic of conversation every single day.
Note that these claims are very generic, the only Christian thing about them is the word “pastors.”
As I thought about this, I heard Rush Limbaugh discussing this matter, in his usual picante style, and so I will present part of his dissection1:
It’s very clever and very artful, but Burton’s answer is evasive. The fact that Obama “prays every day” does not make him a Christian. Jews, Muslims, every other religious practitioner “prays every day,” some of them multiple times a day. Some of them have calls to prayer which are so beautiful that Obama thinks that they’re “one of the prettiest sounds in the world.”
According to the March 6, 2007 AD New York Times interview with Nicholas Kristof, “Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate [Arabic] accent.” This is what President Obama recited, “Allah is supreme, Allah is supreme, Allah is supreme, Allah is supreme. I witness that there is no god but Allah.”
Then Burton said Obama “communicates with his religious advisor every day.” Well, so do religious people of all faiths. What’s a religious advisor?…We all have a pastor, a priest, a rabbi. We’ve all got religious advisors…He’s making his Christianity sound like it’s a policy thing and he has to have a meeting every day with his Christian policy advisors — and if it is that, if he is having policy meetings with his Christian advisors every day, he needs to replace ’em because they’re giving him bad advice, ’cause this is the weakest answer to try to dispel a ridiculous problem…
And then Burton says, “There’s a group of pastors he takes counsel from on a regular basis.” Well, so do people of all religions take counsel from their pastors…
It is true that the term “pastor” may be generic but it is generally Christian specific. The resolution would be to ascertain who is being referred to as “pastors” and thereby determine whether they are Christians. However, that someone takes counsel from a group of pastors does not mean that they are Christians. I take counsel from my mechanic but I am not a mechanic (neither do I heed all that he tells me).
And then Burton said, “His faith is very important to him.” Yeah. Yeah. Bin Laden’s faith is not important to him. Billy Graham’s faith isn’t particularly important to him. Pope Benedict? (Snorts) His faith is not very important to him. What is this? Obama’s faith is very important to him? We are supposed to be dazzled by this? We are supposed to be mesmerized? We are supposed to be persuaded, convinced? Wow. Who knew that Obama’s faith is very important to him?
Faith is important to millions of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, terrorists, Buddhists. Atheists! Atheism is a faith. It’s very important to those people. Obama’s mother was a atheist. But none of this, none of it relates to the question of Obama’s Christianity. Zip, zero, nada. This didn’t cut it.
Then Burton calls Obama’s Christianity “obvious.” Well, uh, isn’t that the point, ladies and gentlemen? It isn’t obvious if we’re polling it. Let me correct myself: It isn’t obvious if Obama’s own media is polling it. Bill Clinton’s Christianity was obvious. Clinton was in every black church he could find. Clinton was out there claiming to be the first black president in a spiritual sense. George W. Bush’s Christianity was obvious.
He talked about it. He talked about it in ways that defined him as a person. Clinton did, too. Clinton was also very obvious about it because every time there was a sex scandal, we had him standing in front of the Reverend Jackson and others, “religious advisors,” and they were having prayer meetings and they were holding hands and so forth. It was obvious that Clinton was a Christian.
It was obvious that George W. Bush was a Christian. It was obvious that FDR was a Christian. So obvious that nobody ever asked. No one even thought to ask, “Is Bush a Christian?” In fact, when they talked about Bush being a Christian it was to criticize him. We had stories and articles: “Is Bush’s faith guiding policy?”When Bush talked about the desire of every human being to be free, that that’s part of our creation, remember how they cringed? The same media that now apparently so love and respect Christianity that they are damn well convinced that Obama is one, and they are damn well persuaded that we’ve gotta believe it.
But Bush’s Christianity? They didn’t like it, and they don’t like right-wing Christianity…They don’t like Christianity that talks about pro-life. They hate it! The ruling class doesn’t want to get anywhere near it.Now all of a sudden it is crucial that we understand Obama’s a Christian because it’s important to him. But we didn’t have to ask it about FDR, we didn’t have to ask it about Clinton, we didn’t have to ask it about George W. Bush.
Nobody asked Burton, “Okay, he’s got all these religious advisors. Does he listen to them? Does he listen to their message?” because he said he never listened to Reverend Wright. He can’t tell you what Reverend Wright ever said when he was a member of that church for 20 years. Did you know that Reverend Wright used to be a Muslim? Did you know that? You might have known that and forgotten it, but Reverend Wright used to be a Muslim and now he’s a black liberation theologist. Which is some sort of Christianity, but he used to be Muslim.So nothing is “obvious” about Obama’s Christianity, Mr. Burton, and the telltale sign is that you even have to say it. We’re polling it! You see, Obama’s Christianity is the opposite of obvious. “What do you mean by that, Limbaugh? What do you mean! How can you sit there and say ‘Obama’s Christianity is the opposite of obvious’?” Well, glad you asked. Let me ‘splain it.
He has a Muslim name: “Barack Hussein Obama.” He had a Muslim father and an extended Muslim family in Kenya. He was partly raised and educated in Indonesia by a Muslim stepfather. He has Muslim half-sisters and brothers, one of whom continues to reside in a three-by-five-foot hut in Kenya. His mother was a self-proclaimed and unaffiliated atheist. Obama professed no religion and belonged to no church until he joined Reverend Wright’s Trinity Church in Chicago.
He did this in his late twenties and his mentor there, the estimable Reverend Jeremiah Wright, was a Muslim who converted to black liberation theology, which is a highly exotic (let’s be politic here) highly exotic form of Christianity in the American, even black American, context. It’s pretty exotic. Obama’s great literary intellectual role model was Malcolm X. One of Obama’s religious advisors is a Chicago Muslim, Eboo Patel. Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf (or “Ruuf,” however he pronounces the last name) the controversial Muslim leader behind the plan to build the Islamic Center and mosque a couple blocks from Ground Zero wrote the afterward to Eboo Patel’s 2006 book: Building the Interfaith Youth Movement: Beyond Dialogue to Action.
So the Ground Zero mosque imam wrote the afterward to Obama’s religious advisor’s book. The religious advisor is a Muslim. So, Mr. Burton, Obama’s Christianity is the opposite of obvious. You have to dig deep here to find it. Now, having said all that, none of what I have said means that Obama’s a Muslim and none of it means that Obama’s not a sincere Christian. If he’s going to say that he is, fine. We will accept that he’s a Christian. I still find it amazing we’re polling it. And I have to laugh. Have you seen the latest examples of the media trying to convince us that he’s not a Muslim?
Pictures of the beer summit! Pictures of Obama with a brewski. “See! He can’t be a Muslim; he’s drinking beer. You know Muslim don’t approve of alcohol.” They’re going to great lengths. But he’s not “obviously” a Christian. We have to take that on (ahem) faith, if I may use the word. We have to accept his Christianity on faith, to believe that he’s telling us the truth because his Christianity is not obvious by any intellectually coherent definition of the word…
The “He can’t be a Muslim; he’s drinking beer” issue is interesting. Apparently, no Jews eat bacon.
Now, here’s the point. On a lot of personal things like religion, I have no idea what Barack Obama believes. I mean this NASA mission to make Muslims feel good about themselves, they had to walk that back. I mean that was a head scratcher, wasn’t it? The new purpose of NASA is outreach for Muslims to make them feel good about math and science?…
he apologizes for his country; he doesn’t understand this controversy about the mosque at Ground Zero or, worse, he does understand it and is just giving us a thumb in the eye…
I don’t care about his religious beliefs, frankly, unless he’s lying about them…We’re gonna play that Tom Brokaw-Charlie Rose bite again today where they admitted they don’t know much about him. Nobody knows anything about him. We’re having to ask people in polls whether or not he’s a Muslim, for crying out loud…electing Barack Obama president is the equivalent of marrying somebody without knowing a damn thing about them until the next day, and that unusually happens when you’re drunk, and in a place like Las Vegas. And when that usually happens you go in for a quickie divorce, but we can’t do that, so we’re kind of stuck with this…
Obama’s going to church via the BlackBerry. He gets those devotionals downloaded to his BlackBerry every day. The American people are used to seeing their presidents go to church, but, no, Obama’s getting his devotional from the BlackBerry. By the way, his devotionals come from his Muslim advisor, too. He’s got a Muslim religious advisor…
Indeed, President Obama stated that he receives daily devotionals but that they are from various faiths. Even devoted Christians can appreciate the wisdom of other faiths but they would never consider them part of their “devotions/devotionals.”
Consider what C. S. Lewis wrote as he juxtaposed his current Christianity with his former atheism:
If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all these religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth.
When I was an atheist I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view.2
Barack Obama has stated that he does not attend a church, while claiming to for months to be looking for a church home, because it would be too disruptive. Apparently, no other president in the history of the USA has ever noticed that. No wonder Thomas Jefferson attended a Christian church which worshipped in the Capitol Building.
He makes a habit of praising all things Islamic but when it comes to the Bible…well, just read Osama vs. Obama.
Now, during his interview with pastor Rick Warren Obama did state, “I believe Jesus died for my sins and I’m redeemed through him – that is a source of strength and sustenance on a daily basis.”
As a side note; while Glenn Beck is correct about the un-biblical nature of Barack Obama’s theology (more specifically, soteriology)—that “Individual salvation depends on collective salvation”—it is utter irony that Beck himself hold to un-biblical theology—see my essay about Glenn Beck.
Overall; the point is not to be the final arbiters of Barack Obama’s faith or salvation. The point is that his background, his words, his actions and the fallacious nature of the arguments of those who seek to defend him only add fuel to the fires of flummox.